

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



159 



LETTER XIII. 



April I2M, 1772. 



DEAR SIR, While I was in Sussex last autumn my residence was 

 at the village near Lewes, from whence I had formerly the plea- 

 sure of writing to you. On the ist November I remarked that the 

 old tortoise, formerly mentioned, began first to dig the ground in 



THE TORTOISE. 



order to the forming its hyb'ernaculum, which it had fixed on just 

 beside a great tuft of hepaticas. It scrapes out the ground with 

 its fore-feet, and throws it up over its back with its hind ; but the 

 motion of its legs is ridiculously slow, little exceeding the hour- 

 hand of a clock; and suitable to the composure of an animal said 

 to be a whole month in performing one feat of copulation. No- 

 thing can be more assiduous than this creature night and day in 

 scooping the earth, and forcing its great body into the cavity ; 

 but, as the noons of that season proved unusually warm and 



